DSpace Collection:http://hdl.handle.net/2381/4592015-08-02T20:25:19Z2015-08-02T20:25:19ZThe impossible dream: challenges in reporting an institutional ethnography of a government primary school in EthiopiaMitchell, Rafaelhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/322942015-05-22T02:00:20Z2015-05-21T08:55:36ZTitle: The impossible dream: challenges in reporting an institutional ethnography of a government primary school in Ethiopia
Authors: Mitchell, Rafael
Abstract: [From Introduction] From 2000 – 2001 EC1 I worked as a teacher training coordinator at a government college in Tigray, Ethiopia with the international development organisation VSO. The government’s educational reform agenda sought to introduce participative evaluation and development planning in schools, and continuous professional development for teachers (Mitchell 2014). These reforms have been widely accepted by governments around the world and acquired the status of ‘global education policies’ (Verger et al. 2012), yet teachers and principals in Tigray questioned their relevance to the contexts in which they were working, and I too began to question the cross-cultural relevance of the values and relations implicated in these policies (Guthrie 2011; Tabulawa 2013). It was this perceived policy/context gap, and the under-researched nature of Ethiopian schools as social and educational institutions which provided the initial impetus for my current PhD research at a government primary school in Tigray region. I am developing an ethnographic case study which attends to the perspectives of the school community – students, teachers, parents and woreda [local authority] officials – to address the questions:
- What and whose purposes are served by the school? And - How are the interests and agendas of different groups mediated by processes and structures in the school?2015-05-21T08:55:36ZUsing participants’ photo-narratives to elicit their perspectives on social interactions in schools.Busher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/318272015-03-09T15:58:17Z2015-03-09T15:57:40ZTitle: Using participants’ photo-narratives to elicit their perspectives on social interactions in schools.
Authors: Busher, Hugh
Abstract: Visual methods are well recognised as a means for capturing participants’ views of their experiences
(Pink, 2001, Prosser, 2009). This paper discusses why visual methods might be used in investigating
insiders’ perspectives, particularly those of school students, of their social and policy situations in
schools, and how this might lead to the empowerment of marginalised insiders whose voices are
often repressed by those with formal authority in institutions. In considering the different ways in
which visual data may be analysed the paper focuses on the importance and richness of visual
subjective data, especially when organised into narratives by participants, and points out how the
cross-referencing of subjective data becomes the means of constructing the credibility of a study.2015-03-09T15:57:40ZEthical issues in on-line research: authenticating voice, sustaining privacyBusher, HughJames, Nalitahttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/318012015-03-05T16:31:12Z2015-03-05T16:30:40ZTitle: Ethical issues in on-line research: authenticating voice, sustaining privacy
Authors: Busher, Hugh; James, Nalita
Abstract: At the heart of any research project lies the trustworthiness with which its findings
might be viewed. In which ever paradigm researchers choose to locate their work,
they try to ensure the trustworthiness or credibility of its outcomes by enacting it
within a rigorous framework that addresses the epistemological complexities of a
study’s methodological process and intellectual focus. At the core of this framework
lie the ethics of research. These are of particular importance for people engaged in
research and practice in education and the social sciences who deal with human
subjects in various forms.
The screw is tightened further when the methodology used for a study is qualitative
and the study uses the web as a medium for the investigation. In studies that explore
people’s narratives it is essential to be confident that the people responding to semi or
unstructured interview schedules are whom they claim they are. Impersonation would
invalidate a study. This is particularly difficult to detect behind the smoked-glass of
the web interface. For the participants in such research, too, the ethical dilemmas are
considerable since every message that is sent on email carries a unique identifier that
links it to the site from which it is sent and to the person who owns that site. Should
such information inadvertently filter into the data sets of a research project, then that
person’s privacy will be easily breached.
This paper considers some of the ethical dilemmas involved in on-line qualitative
research, drawing on examples from some studies to discuss how such dilemmas
might be addressed in an effort to construct the unattainable but pursue the utopian:
fully ethical research.2015-03-05T16:30:40ZCreating and enriching interviews in qualitative online researchJames, NalitaBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/318002015-03-05T16:28:38Z2015-03-05T16:28:10ZTitle: Creating and enriching interviews in qualitative online research
Authors: James, Nalita; Busher, Hugh
Abstract: One of the exciting possibilities of qualitative online research is the construction of asynchronous
interviews. By drawing on two research studies that used email for this, this paper explores how
such interviews become enriched as participants actively and iteratively engage in their narrative
constructions as the interview develops and unfolds, creating a reflexive interview These reflexive
interviews are distinguished from focus or guided types of interviews that ask participants to
comment on events in their social world. The paper explores how the processes of email
interviewing can facilitate this ‘enrichment’ by researchers constructing an online site where
through the displacement of time and space, collaboration and empowerment, and identity and
agency, participants (are encouraged to) take increasing control of the research agenda in their
narrative construction. Through this discussion, the paper argues that the modification of the
research relationship helps participants to develop narrative texts that are shaped more closely to
their perspectives, and the meanings they construct for their lives. This leads to stronger claims for
reflexivity than had the researchers remained wholly in control. The paper concludes that the
asynchronous quality of email interviews seems to offer an important element in facilitating the
construction of more collaborative approaches to research by making space for participants to
reflect in their own time and not merely to the researcher’s agenda. This diminishes the impact of
the asymmetrical power relationships between participant and researcher that so often pervade
qualitative research interviews.2015-03-05T16:28:10ZEmail communication as a technology of oppression: Attenuating identity in online researchBusher, HughJames, Nalitahttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317992015-03-05T16:25:47Z2015-03-05T16:25:18ZTitle: Email communication as a technology of oppression: Attenuating identity in online research
Authors: Busher, Hugh; James, Nalita
Abstract: This paper considers the impact of online communication, especially in the arena of email
interviewing, on the reconstruction of participants’ voices and identities in environments that
potentially provoke a sense of powerlessness and oppression. We argue that the form of the
communication, devoid of face to face contact, non-verbal communication and the inflections
of people’s physical voices, challenges participants, and therefore oppresses them, to find
ways of engaging authentically with their interlocutors. In this struggle, despite the constraints
of the system, participants try to project their normal lived selves. However fears about the
system, e.g. how far it may be an insecure environment which will impugn their privacy, leads
participants to be wary about being self-revelatory to online researchers until they have
evidence of the values and identities of those researchers, in some cases gleaning those from
fleeting direct personal or telephonic contact or from information sources that are accessible
to them. We draw on evidence from two small scale studies of practitioners in Higher
Education, to assert that participants in these qualitative research projects, in their struggle to
make meaning of their experiences, learnt to assert power to influence the shape the project, a
temporary community of which they had membership, and overcome their initial senses of
peripherality, oppression and powerlessness.2015-03-05T16:25:18ZIs it Ethnography? Some students’ views of their experience of Secondary schooling in EnglandBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317982015-03-05T16:23:00Z2015-03-05T16:22:45ZTitle: Is it Ethnography? Some students’ views of their experience of Secondary schooling in England
Authors: Busher, Hugh
Abstract: The study set out to investigate how official and unofficial discourses of inclusion, engagement and
discipline in schools in England at present affect the ways in which students and teachers construct
their various identities. The study was carried out in one Secondary school in Middle England, UK,
with 36 students in Year 9 (age 13-14 years), 3 of their class teachers, and some of the senior staff of
the school. In addition to observation of students’ lessons, students took photographs of their
environment to situate themselves in it and provide the bases for reflexive interviews with the
academic researchers. Students showed sympathy for teachers working under pressure; annoyance
with other students acting in an anti-social manner; a strong sense of justice; expectation that they
should be respected in the way they are treated by adults; and acceptance of the necessity of rules
and punishments for rule breakers.2015-03-05T16:22:45ZPerception of Identity in Science Education (POISED): A pilot study of research with pupils in England and IndiaTas, MaartenBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317972015-03-05T16:20:59Z2015-03-05T16:20:05ZTitle: Perception of Identity in Science Education (POISED): A pilot study of research with pupils in England and India
Authors: Tas, Maarten; Busher, Hugh
Abstract: The idea for the POISED project developed from the partnership of the School of Education,
University of Leicester, a comprehensive 14-19 school in Leicestershire, and the link of this school
with a 4-19 Academy in India following the English national curriculum. Because of the notions of
one of the Science teachers at the Leicestershire 14-19 school was that the behaviour and interest in
Science seemed to be very different from what he had seen in schools in India we decided to look at
how students view themselves as science students and citizens, and possibly how carers/parents
view their children in these areas. A collaborative project with a school in India would foster a
greater understanding between students from India and England about school life and engage
students with online technology. It would also help students and teachers to have a greater
understanding of life, work and school in India and England, through considering students and
teachers’ perspectives on this.3
When students at the Leicestershire 14-19 school had been approached and attended meetings to
discuss the ideas for this project it became clear that one of the objectives for this study could be to
help students develop as researchers and communicators. The students were very excited about the
multicultural dimension and the idea of developing their identity as Science students and
Researchers. There were very keen on helping to develop ideas of how to make this collaboration
successful. After completion of the first phase of this project, the idea is to involve Inner City Schools
in Leicester with a high percentage of second or third generation of pupils from Asian immigrants,
and an all boys school and all girls school.2015-03-05T16:20:05ZPerceptions of Identity in Science Education (POISED): A study of some Secondary school students and teachers in England.Tas, MaartenBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317952015-03-05T16:17:54Z2015-03-05T16:17:26ZTitle: Perceptions of Identity in Science Education (POISED): A study of some Secondary school students and teachers in England.
Authors: Tas, Maarten; Busher, Hugh
Abstract: This paper is based on a study of the views about schooling, science education and science in their
lives of some Year Ten (Y10) (15 year old) students and some of their teachers in two schools in the
Midlands of England, one of which serves multicultural urban areas, and one of which serves a rural
and largely mono-cultural area. It was carried out from 2010 -2011. Data was collected by online
surveys and blogs from students and from students and teachers by face to face interviews. Early
findings from students’ questionnaire responses suggest among other things that students think
good teachers are centrally to their learning but they appreciate a relaxed and collaborative
approach to work supported by a variety of resources and pedagogic methods. They recognise the
positive impact of science on their lives and generally don’t perceive it as antithetical to their faith,
where they have any.2015-03-05T16:17:26ZStudents’ and teachers’ interpretations of schooling: Contested understandings of shared realitiesBusher, HughCremin, HilaryMason, C.http://hdl.handle.net/2381/317942015-03-05T16:15:36Z2015-03-05T16:14:51ZTitle: Students’ and teachers’ interpretations of schooling: Contested understandings of shared realities
Authors: Busher, Hugh; Cremin, Hilary; Mason, C.
Abstract: This paper reports on an on-going study that contrasts the ‘voices’ and work-related identities of
some students who are said to be disaffected with those of other (said to be engaged) students and
teachers in a secondary school in England, UK. The research project investigated how student
identities are (re) constructed in school, promoting or inhibiting learning, engagement and inclusion.
It used visual ethnography and reflexive interviews to collect the data.2015-03-05T16:14:51ZParticipants’ perceptions of pre-service teachers’ experiences during school training placements (practicums) in Turkish and English policy contextsBusher, HughGündüz, M.Lawson, TonyCakmak, M.Comber, Chrishttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317932015-03-05T16:12:16Z2015-03-05T16:11:26ZTitle: Participants’ perceptions of pre-service teachers’ experiences during school training placements (practicums) in Turkish and English policy contexts
Authors: Busher, Hugh; Gündüz, M.; Lawson, Tony; Cakmak, M.; Comber, Chris
Abstract: This pilot study investigates how some pre-service teachers’ and their university supervisors and
school-based teacher mentors - view pre-service teachers’ school-based training (practicums) in
Turkey and England. In the liminal social spaces of practicums, pre-service teachers begin their
transformation into serving teachers (Shields, 2003, 12–13) in particular policy and socio-cultural
contexts. Practicums allow pre-service teachers to observe established teachers at work, prepare
instructional materials adapted to the learning needs of particular students, teach groups of
students, and begin to understand the complexities of working in schools. However, as their social
knowledge of practice, power and culture in schools lacks sophistication (Pierce, 2007) this is
challenging even with the help of school-based teacher mentors who are often reported as being
crucial (Wilkins and Lall, 2010). School-based teacher mentors complement university-based tutors
in helping pre-service teachers understand the practice of being a teacher in part by helping them to
reflect on their experiences (Lucas, 1999 in Myles et al., 2006). Teacher educators need to
understand how pre-service teachers experience the formal and informal processes of practicums to
prepare them for that and how these can be ameliorated by the actions of their critical friends(Golby
and Appleby, 1996).2015-03-05T16:11:26ZDisputing dominant discourse: Students’ and teachers’ interpretations of schoolingBusher, HughCremin, HilaryMason, C.http://hdl.handle.net/2381/317922015-03-06T02:02:06Z2015-03-05T16:07:52ZTitle: Disputing dominant discourse: Students’ and teachers’ interpretations of schooling
Authors: Busher, Hugh; Cremin, Hilary; Mason, C.
Abstract: Discourses of performativity are constructed within educational sites, such as schools, shape the
perspectives of participants such as teachers and school students, and gatekeepers to sites, such as
head teachers and senior staff, as well as researchers who are taking part in ethnographic studies.
Many national governments, often for claimed economic reasons, construct and police schooling
and teachers’ work using performative models of ‘techno-bureaucratic managerialism’ (Apple,
2000). In England, central government prescribes for state schools curriculum content, pedagogical
approaches, student assessment and the assessment of teachers, all enforced through a punitive
school inspection regime (Troman et al., 2007). Discourses of student voice (Flutter and Rudduck,
2004) and a recognition of the contribution students’ perspectives make to constructing successful
schools (DCSF, 2008) resonate with wider notions of choice and discipline (DfE, 2010) in education.
These discourses influence how participants manage, resist, or perhaps act ambiguously to cope
with them while struggling to assert their own values and interests and those of the people with or
for whom they (claim to) work. These discourses also shape how researchers in educational
settings, whose work is also shaped by these discourses, may design and carry out ethnographic
studies on particular sites. This has implications for researchers’ relationships with other participants
in a study, as well as for their own careers.2015-03-05T16:07:52ZStruggles in an educational prison: teachers’ and students’ constructions of self, others and schooling in performative timesBusher, HughCremin, HilaryMason, C.http://hdl.handle.net/2381/317902015-03-05T15:40:51Z2015-03-05T15:40:19ZTitle: Struggles in an educational prison: teachers’ and students’ constructions of self, others and schooling in performative times
Authors: Busher, Hugh; Cremin, Hilary; Mason, C.
Abstract: This paper draws on the findings of a recent research project into how students and
teachers construct their understandings of school to argue that school has many of the
characteristics of a prison and that it is perceived as such, a house of discipline, control and
correction, by student and teacher participants. The discussion draws on Foucault, Giddens,
and Spivak, amongst others to conceptualise this. The study was carried out in one
Secondary school in Middle England, UK, with 36 students in Year 9 (age 13-14 years), 3 of
their class teachers, and some of the senior staff of the school. In addition to observation of
students’ lessons, students and teachers took photographs of their environment to situate
themselves in it and provide the bases for reflexive interviews with the academic
researchers.2015-03-05T15:40:19ZTeachers’ Perceptions of Science Education and Their Students' Responses to It and Its Impact on Society and Their LivesBusher, HughTas, Maartenhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317892015-03-05T15:33:02Z2015-03-05T15:32:27ZTitle: Teachers’ Perceptions of Science Education and Their Students' Responses to It and Its Impact on Society and Their Lives
Authors: Busher, Hugh; Tas, Maarten
Abstract: Across Europe teaching Science subjects helps students to think about the natural world and the
nature of citizenship in modern society and develop technological skills for its economic
development. In England, an element in the Science curriculum for 14-16 year old students focuses
on students developing arguments, using scientific, technical and mathematical language, and
considering how and why decisions about science and technology affect social, economic and
environmental issues.
This study, focused on 14-16 year old students’ and their teachers’ views on schooling, science
education and science and society, used a linked case studies design in two Secondary schools in the
Midlands of England in 2010–2011. Findings from the study reported in this paper show the
complexity of 7 Secondary school science teachers’ life-worlds, the struggle they
experienced between themselves and the social, political and organisational structures that
surrounded them, and their awareness of the importance of significant others, students as
well as other teachers, in the construction of their professional identities and communities
of practice as people who were passionate about science and the teaching of science and
the impact it had on their own and others’ lives. the conclusions drawn from these data and
results, including their implications for further research or application/practice.2015-03-05T15:32:27ZStudent voice on education in KS4 ScienceBusher, HughTas, Maartenhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317882015-03-05T15:30:29Z2015-03-05T15:29:56ZTitle: Student voice on education in KS4 Science
Authors: Busher, Hugh; Tas, Maarten
Abstract: This paper considers what students thought encouraged or discouraged their engagement with Science
education. It is based on a small-scale study of students’ and teachers’ views on what they liked and disliked
about science education in school and the impact of science on their daily lives. It was carried out in two
schools, InnerCity and SmallTown, in the Midlands of England in 2010-11. The study used a linked case studies
design to collect quantitative and qualitative data by online questionnaires and face to face semi-structured
interviews from 83 14-16 year old male and female students and their science teachers. Quantitative data was
analysed manually by simple descriptive statistics. Qualitative data was analysed thematically manually.
Students’ identified four main factors that encouraged their engagement with science education:
working with friends and socialising, learning new and interesting things in interesting ways, and working with
supportive and enthusiastic teachers encouraged by the school. The last was supplemented by the
encouragement of peers and families. Future job opportunities offered extrinsic, if aspirational rewards for
engagement with learning. The factors fit loosely into two main categories, that related to the construction of
knowledge and that connected with interpersonal relationships.2015-03-05T15:29:56ZBuilding castles in the air: Colonising the social space in online qualitative researchBusher, HughJames, Nalitahttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317872015-03-05T15:27:07Z2015-03-05T15:26:18ZTitle: Building castles in the air: Colonising the social space in online qualitative research
Authors: Busher, Hugh; James, Nalita
Abstract: At present there is only a relatively small field of literature on online qualitative
research in education as an approach that offers several advantages to education
researchers. It allows qualitative data to be gathered at a distance, as we have
discovered, especially when conventional means of distance data gathering, such as
telephonic interviews, are unacceptable for methodological or logistical reasons. In
order to construct trustworthy online qualitative research, we need to deepen our
understanding of its processes, particularly the nature of the researcher / participant
relationships in this social space, and we need to deepen our understanding of the
interaction between participants’ and researchers’ online and offline selves and how
these interactions affect our understandings of the participants’ lives. This paper
investigates critical perspectives in online qualitative research by considering how
asymmetrical power relationships between participants and researchers influence the
ways in which they colonise the social space of a research conversation and how this
affects the trustworthiness of research.2015-03-05T15:26:18ZEthics of Educational Research: An agenda for discussionBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317862015-03-05T15:27:30Z2015-03-05T15:23:49ZTitle: Ethics of Educational Research: An agenda for discussion
Authors: Busher, Hugh
Abstract: [From Introduction] ‘Ethics embody individual and communal codes of conduct based upon adherence to a
set of principles which may be explicit and codified or implicit, and which may be
abstract and impersonal or concrete and personal’.
Zimbardo (1984, cited in Cohen et al, 2000:58)
Pring (2000) takes a slightly different view, drawing a distinction between ethics and morals,
however the latter emerge in different situations. ‘Ethics [are] the philosophical enquiry into
the basis of morals or moral judgements’ (p.141) whereas ‘morals [are] concerned with what
is the right or wrong thing to do’ (idem).
By focusing on the principles that might underlie the moral dimensions of educational
research, rather than trying to exemplify what practical moral decisions researchers might
take in particular situations, This paper tries to go beyond the ‘search for rules of conduct’
that Simons (1995: 436) pursued in order to allow researchers to defend their work in various
social and political contexts. Such technicist solutions imply an autocratic style of managing
research that privileges the views of some people, researchers. This view of managing has ‘at
its core a set of values: a disrespectful and distrusting view of people as cogs or components
in the machinery of organisations’ (Shipley and Moir, 2001: iv) or other enterprises.2015-03-05T15:23:49ZConstructing cultures of inclusion in schools and classrooms: hearing voices, building communities for learningBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317812015-03-05T14:51:04Z2015-03-05T14:50:25ZTitle: Constructing cultures of inclusion in schools and classrooms: hearing voices, building communities for learning
Authors: Busher, Hugh
Abstract: [From Introduction] To cope with the tensions and the potential social conflicts that occur in school
communities leaders need to listen to participants’ voices, those of students, staff,
parents and school governors in particular, recognise their interests and needs, and
allow them to influence the curriculum and organisational decisions that are made.
The importance of students as internal actors in the construction of a school and of
schooling (Day et al, 2000; Rudduck and Flutter, 2000), and recent central
government policy encouraging the development of school councils, points to a reemerging
awareness of the importance of encouraging students to take a responsible
part in the government of their schools, an awareness that was largely extinguished in
the 1980s and 1990s. School students have considerable impact on the construction of
its culture (Marsh, 1997; Busher and Barker, 2003), whether or not they are
commonly included in discourses about work-related interactions in schools and
whether or not they are conventionally marginalised from discourses about school
organisational process. Linstead (1993: 59) describes this as students helping to write
the texts of schools, perceiving the construction of organisations as an intertextual
process that takes place between the authors and actors of it and in it. It raises
questions about how students’ acute awareness of the processes of schooling and the
many insights they have of them (Rudduck and Flutter, 2000; Flutter and Rudduck,
2004) can be heard and acknowledged by staff at all levels in order to contribute
positively to the development of a school.2015-03-05T14:50:25ZImproving Schools:Developing Schools for all childrenBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317802015-03-05T14:48:40Z2015-03-05T14:48:08ZTitle: Improving Schools:Developing Schools for all children
Authors: Busher, Hugh
Abstract: [From Introduction] This presentation focuses on Improving schools for all children. But there is a problem with
the term ‘improving’ in that it assumes things are always getting better
But notions of improvement are culturally located – so what is considered ‘improvement’ in
one culture (and one time and space in history) may not be so considered in another. For
example in the UK in the twentieth century there was a strong move to schooling which
included boys and girls in the same classes in one school, whatever the age of the boys and
girls. Some parents resisted this, but most parents seemed to have welcomed this, not least
because it seemed to expand the educational opportunities available to girls (women).
However in some parts of the world, including some countries round here, such developments
would not be considered improvements.2015-03-05T14:48:08ZLeaders values and social justice: Improving teaching and learning for allBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317792015-03-05T14:39:10Z2015-03-05T14:36:27ZTitle: Leaders values and social justice: Improving teaching and learning for all
Authors: Busher, Hugh
Abstract: [From Introduction] Structural / functionalist discourses of leadership focus on what leaders do and offer explanations
for the efficacy of their actions. Micro-political discourses offer insights into how leaders negotiate
their aims and objectives. They also offer explanations for why people prefer to resist some
directions in which leaders choose to take institutions, whether under pressure from external
agencies or of their own volition. Ethical and moral discourses offer explanations for why leaders
choose to act in certain ways. Ribbins (1999: 2) points out that values explain the why of the human
enterprise. These three discourses interact around and through the agency of the leader as person.2015-03-05T14:36:27ZUsing email as a site to construct narratives through interviewsJames, NalitaBusher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317782015-03-05T12:50:55Z2015-03-05T12:50:04ZTitle: Using email as a site to construct narratives through interviews
Authors: James, Nalita; Busher, Hugh
Abstract: This paper considers how email interviews can be used as a site and space for participants in
research to construct narratives of experience. It will begin by outlining how the researchers
came to use the method rather than two other forms of interviewing: – telephone interviewing
and face-to-face interviewing.
The paper will focus on how email interviewing when used as a tool to construct
narratives, provides the opportunity for reflective practice by participants. However, these
processes of reflection are enmeshed in tensions that arise from the power differences
between the researchers and the other participants and from participants’ concerns about
protecting their privacy and anonymity.
The paper concludes that email interviewing has the potential to allow the collection
of rich, descriptive, contextually-situated data that can support research into people’s histories
and narratives. However, its idiosyncratic processes require researchers to think carefully
about how they engage with other participants.2015-03-05T12:50:04ZManaging exclusions in schools: in whose interests?Busher, Hughhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317772015-03-05T12:48:10Z2015-03-05T12:47:36ZTitle: Managing exclusions in schools: in whose interests?
Authors: Busher, Hugh
Abstract: This paper considers briefly the policy and social contexts of student exclusions from schools and
some of the common reasons for those exclusions, before moving on to explore some school
policies and strategies that are used to enact exclusion and to encourage students at risk of exclusion
to engage more successfully with schools. Interpreting these policies and strategies of exclusion is,
however, problematic. Although they appear to foster rejection from the educational community for
some young people struggling to position themselves in the organisational and social contexts
which surround them, they are often portrayed as a means of promoting better general student
engagement with schooling and of giving targeted help and support to particular students. Yet there
are strong disciplinary elements in exclusion which tend to position the recipients as social outsiders
to normal educational structures by depriving them of, through not giving full access to, the
educational resources available to other students, so disadvantaging those excluded students in their
struggles to gain a reasonable style of life as adults. It raises conundrums for school leaders about
what values to implement and how and in whose interests, and which students’ needs should be
given priority in what ways.2015-03-05T12:47:36ZAccess to Higher Education? Understanding Access Students’ perspectives on the transformations of their Learning Identities and Careers in Changing Policy contextsBusher, HughJames, NalitaSuttill, Bethhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317752015-03-05T12:32:37Z2015-03-05T12:31:44ZTitle: Access to Higher Education? Understanding Access Students’ perspectives on the transformations of their Learning Identities and Careers in Changing Policy contexts
Authors: Busher, Hugh; James, Nalita; Suttill, Beth
Abstract: The small scale study on which this paper is based focused on mature students on
Access to Higher Education courses in the Social Sciences / Humanities in three
Colleges in the East Midlands of England during the academic year 2011-2012. In
the course of one academic year, the study collected data from about five self selecting. Access students in each College through focus group interviews on three
occasions (November, March and May) as well as individual audio diaries with them
and individual interviews with their tutors. It interrogated the views and experiences of learning of these students and their tutors in order to investigate the nature of Access students' transformations and transitions as learners in particular economic
and policy contexts. The qualitative data was audio-recorded, transcribed and
analysed manually using a form of thematic analysis which also tried to take account
of participants own constructs of themselves and their experiences. Although the findings cannot be generalised to a wider population than its participants, the themes that emerge raise questions that need to be consider in other similar institutions. Preliminary findings suggest that educational access, personal circumstances and school experiences are a key part of the students’ learning transitions. Institutional practices and structural circumstances influence their learning transitions. Students claimed that reasons for joining Access courses reflect a growing uncertainty in the economic climate and a search for new or more rewarding careers than they currently had.2015-03-05T12:31:44Z“I don’t think I was a learner”: the transformation of Access students’ learning identitiesJames, NalitaBusher, HughSuttill, Bethhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/317742015-03-05T12:16:24Z2015-03-05T12:15:56ZTitle: “I don’t think I was a learner”: the transformation of Access students’ learning identities
Authors: James, Nalita; Busher, Hugh; Suttill, Beth
Abstract: This paper challenges Bourdieu’s view that the movement of the habitus across
new fields can result in a split habitus, divided against the self and in constant
negotiation with itself and its ambivalences. It draws on a qualitative study of
Access to Higher Education students across three Midlands-based further
education colleges which aimed to develop an understanding of the complexities
of Access students’ learner identities as they move across the unfamiliar field of
FE. Data was collected by …….., The findings demonstrate nuanced
understandings about how the Access to HE students make sense of their
previous learning experiences, and how those experiences inform the
development of their current identities, action and learning. [What do the
findings show about Bourdieu’s theory?]2015-03-05T12:15:56ZReflecting on the Other: Critical perspectives of novice teachers on pedagogy and teacher pupil-relationships in particular geo-political contextsBusher, HughLawson, TonyWilkins, ChrisAcun, I.http://hdl.handle.net/2381/317722015-03-05T12:06:30Z2015-03-05T12:05:56ZTitle: Reflecting on the Other: Critical perspectives of novice teachers on pedagogy and teacher pupil-relationships in particular geo-political contexts
Authors: Busher, Hugh; Lawson, Tony; Wilkins, Chris; Acun, I.
Abstract: This paper discusses the views of Turkish and British novice teachers on pedagogy
and pedagogical relationships with school students when confronted with the
pedagogical practices of the ‘Other’. Experiences of those practices were gained by
novice teachers during an exchange visit for British and Turkish university
students in 2008-2009. Data was collected through questionnaires and focus group
interviews. Findings suggest that Turkish and British novice teachers initially
constructed the ‘Other’ as very different from themselves. The views of members
of both groups were heavily influenced by the cultural contexts in which they
trained and worked. British novice teachers tended to take as axiomatic
constructivist approaches to pedagogy and the relevance to successful pedagogy of
listening to students’ voices. Turkish novice teachers questioned both, many seeing
control and dissemination of knowledge as central to pedagogy and student teacher
relationships.2015-03-05T12:05:56ZIdentifying with Europe? The views of some Turkish and British postgraduate students taking part in a university exchange programmeBusher, HughWilkins, ChrisWarwick, PaulAcun, I.Göz, N. L.http://hdl.handle.net/2381/317532015-03-04T11:48:41Z2015-03-04T11:48:02ZTitle: Identifying with Europe? The views of some Turkish and British postgraduate students taking part in a university exchange programme
Authors: Busher, Hugh; Wilkins, Chris; Warwick, Paul; Acun, I.; Göz, N. L.
Abstract: The project, from which this research arises, is an EU funded student exchange programme
between three Universities in Turkey and Leicester University, England (UK). The research
investigates understandings of Europeanness and European citizenship in Turkey in relation
to the proposed Turkish accession to the EU. It is explicitly designed to allow participants to
explore their perceptions and understandings of citizenship at a crucial time in the
reshaping of European identity. It investigates where and how they locate their constructed
identities in a period of fluidity and tensions caused by shifting pattern of cultural identity,
globalisation and the emergence of additional layers of identity, such as the European Union
(Giddens, 1991; Kearney 2003).2015-03-04T11:48:02Z“Increasingly broad shoulders”: The changing role of SENCOsMitchell, Rafaelhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/315112015-05-27T08:28:36Z2015-01-27T16:18:30ZTitle: “Increasingly broad shoulders”: The changing role of SENCOs
Authors: Mitchell, Rafael
Abstract: The Coalition Government has promised a systemic overhaul of services for pupils with Special Educational Needs (DfE 2011). Although the precise implications for SENCOs are not yet known, the draft proposal indicates the government’s intention for increased parental choice over provision and ‘sharper accountability’ in schools. Drawing on data from national surveys of SENCOs in 2007 and 2012, this presentation explores the changing profile of SENCOs, and their divergent aspirations and concerns about forthcoming changes to their role.2015-01-27T16:18:30ZRethinking the global trends of education governance reforms : experiences over the past few decades in EnglandTaysum, Alisonhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/291192014-09-29T08:58:24Z2014-09-29T08:54:30ZTitle: Rethinking the global trends of education governance reforms : experiences over the past few decades in England
Authors: Taysum, Alison
Abstract: In England, there is a problem with regard to gaining consensus on the purposes of
education and then developing education reforms to meet those purposes. The focus of this paper is
to make a modest contribution to shedding light on this problem. To do this the paper has four aims.
First, to explore a theory of state, participation and knowledge that will facilitate the rethinking of a
shift in England from Government reforms in education, to structures and providers of education
governance reforms. Second, to draw on Taysum (2012) to map education reforms in England from
the Second World War to 2013. Third, to read the education reforms through the theory of state
participation and knowledge. Finally to make a contribution to this symposium to gain new insights
into common trends found in the characteristics and problems of education reforms in the U.K., the
U.S., and South Korea, and Japan. Over the past few decades in England, the scope of education
reforms has been characterized by government
reforms, and shifts to
governance reforms from
‘education for all’ to the commodification of education and a ‘strategy of separatism’. Education
contents have moved from being redesigned, to public education being reframed in its structure and
providers. Education reforms have been promoted in response to common social conditions. Ball
(2004) suggests these might include the relationship between the state and the professions offering
services, timing, naive research
that on the whole ignores the messiness of school life, financial
issues, and research that provides control mechanisms for policy makers. However these items do
not consider a theory of the state that seeks to
operationalize resources, and shift accountability away
from Government, to governance of independent enterprises within the market. Such a theory of the
state replicates social relations that sustain hegemonies in favour of those that hold power to ensure
retention of power (Ball, 2004). Thus it is important to rethink Government, and governance systems
with regard to education reforms and their relationship with three aspects. First economic conditions
of economic growth or economic deficit. Second, power relations that do or do not facilitate
stakeholder participation. Finally, the kind of knowledge that is produced, and/or exchanged, and/or
38
or transmitted.
The paper takes Gale’s (2001) socio-historiographical approach to policy analyses to
identify potential relationships between the socio-ed
ucational present and the socio-educational past.
This is achieved through the systematic and rigorous engagement with materials from the past and
present. The approach enables historical stages
to be revealed. A critical engagement with these
stages may produce new knowledge about the public issues and private troubles (Taysum and Iqbal,
2012).
To address the aims I ask four questions. First,
what theories of the state and participation
enable the rethinking of features, actors and backgrounds of educational reforms? Second, how can
education reforms in England from the Second Worl
d War to date be mapped? Third, how can these
education reforms be understood in terms of a theory of the state and participation? Fourth, to what
extent can this theorizing be applied to this symposium to gain new insights into common trends
found in the characteristics and problems of education reforms in the U.K., the U.S., South Korea,
and Japan?
Description: The full text of this presentation is available via the links above.2014-09-29T08:54:30ZPerformance decision trees : developing domain-specific criteria for teaching and assessmentFulcher, N. GlennKemp, J.http://hdl.handle.net/2381/289042014-06-23T13:55:25Z2014-06-11T14:30:23ZTitle: Performance decision trees : developing domain-specific criteria for teaching and assessment
Authors: Fulcher, N. Glenn; Kemp, J.
Editors: Wrigglesworth, J
Abstract: In this paper we introduce Performance Decision Trees (PDTs), a means of assessment firmly based in linguistic analysis (Fulcher, 2010; Fulcher et al., 2011). PDTs attempt to capture more of the interactive and communicative nature of speech than is currently possible in traditional linear rating scales. As a result, PDTs can be constructed to help define and assess language use, give diagnostic feedback, and develop ESP syllabuses. Their use would also strengthen the inferences we are able to make about student ability. We will illustrate the value of this approach, as well as the procedure, by discussing the development of a PDT for the domain of travel agency discourse, using original data and with reference to the relevant literature from the fields of both marketing and discourse analysis. Potential applications will then be suggested: for example, other ESP speaking tests and EAP presentations.
Description: Collaborative paper between School of Education and the English Language Teaching Unit.Full text of this item is not currently available on the LRA. The final published version may be available through the links above.2014-06-11T14:30:23ZThe process of changing identity: Pit Stops and Magic Moments of New Teacher Educators.Mohamed, CarmenBachelor, Elainehttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/103332012-04-12T01:02:18Z2012-04-11T11:10:31ZTitle: The process of changing identity: Pit Stops and Magic Moments of New Teacher Educators.
Authors: Mohamed, Carmen; Bachelor, Elaine
Abstract: The existing research on New Teacher Educators (NTEs) in the UK context indicates that the first
year is a time of rapid learning and acquisition of new forms of knowledge and understanding.
Research also indicates that there are three priorities for most NTEs in their first year; survival,
shifting the lens and laying the foundations for research (Boyd et al., 2007:7). It is within this
framework that we set our theoretical study using qualitative data in the form of transcripts from
professional reflections written for the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher
Education (PGCAPHE), interviews with ITE researchers and self documented critical incidents.2012-04-11T11:10:31ZIs the LFC Killing Buffalos? (The Influence of the LFC in improving the Intelligibility and comprehensibility of Arab Learners)Zoghbor, Wafa Shahadahttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/92332011-06-08T09:11:01Z2011-04-08T10:23:17ZTitle: Is the LFC Killing Buffalos? (The Influence of the LFC in improving the Intelligibility and comprehensibility of Arab Learners)
Authors: Zoghbor, Wafa Shahada
Description: Poster presented at the 3rd International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca, Vienna, Austria, May 22th-25th 2010. The poster is also available from the conference's website: http://elfconference.univie.ac.at/publications-vps-and-ppts/2011-04-08T10:23:17ZEducation for Managing ICT: professional development for school leadersComber, ChristopherLawson, Tonyhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/34322012-07-23T15:23:28Z2008-01-28T16:26:22ZTitle: Education for Managing ICT: professional development for school leaders
Authors: Comber, Christopher; Lawson, Tony
Abstract: The early focus of ICT training in schools was on developing teachers' computer skills. Recent developments have focussed on pedagogical objectives. Our previous work established a number of key personnel factors for what we called the integrative school, chief among which was the role of the principal in leading ICT development. More recent work by the authors has found that such leaders are relatively rare. Moreover, the research literature on school leadership barely mentions ICT as an issue for school managers. This suggests a requirement for ICT training dedicated to the needs and concerns of school leaders. We report on findings from an evaluation of a UK pilot scheme designed to address these concerns. Participants reported a significant impact on their ICT leadership. It is proposed that this approach to professional development may provide a model for similar initiatives in other educational systems.
Description: Metadata only enty.2008-01-28T16:26:22ZNew consumers? Children, fashion and consumptionPilcher, JanePole, ChristopherBoden, Sharonhttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/462007-08-13T16:18:11Z2006-06-29T12:45:37ZTitle: New consumers? Children, fashion and consumption
Authors: Pilcher, Jane; Pole, Christopher; Boden, Sharon
Description: Paper presented at ‘Knowing Consumers: Actors, Images, Identities in Modern History’ Conference, Universität Bielefeld, Germany. February 27-28th, 2004.2006-06-29T12:45:37Z